May Your Cows Be Holey!

Over the last several months a phrase I’ve heard over and over again is: “Saying or doing XYZ is not antisemitic.” But asserting what is or is not antisemitic would imply a deep, studied, thoughtful and thorough understanding of what antisemitism actually IS. And what antisemitism is, is a whole complex of ideas, thoughts, behaviors and assumptions about Jews that leads to them being stereotyped and scapegoated, bullied and boycotted, marginalized and mass murdered.

It’s often the same people who confidently declare that what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is the same thing that the Nazi’s did to Jews during the Holocaust, while being altogether ignorant and uninformed about the Holocaust, as well as deeply confused about what is actually happening in Gaza right now. They are likewise ignorant about the very long history of Jewish persecution and oppression, and about how campaigns of anti Jewish hate build momentum over time. They mindlessly regurgitate age-old tropes and stereotypes, and carelessly disseminate harmful misinformation.

In many cases, the people who fervently insist that they are not antisemitic are the most antisemitic of all. To quote Ateret Violet Schmuel, founder of Indigenous Bridges, “I didn’t understand that you didn’t have to openly hate Jews to be an antisemite. You just had to take in, internalize and spread antisemitic propaganda, or propaganda that spins Jews and Israel* in a light that elicits a negative reaction from other people.” (This is by no means an exhaustive description of what it means to be antisemitic. It’s just the tip of a very large iceberg.)

Many people, who not too long ago denied that they were racist, have since done deep inner work and self reflection to own and unpack their racialized whiteness. At the time, they couldn’t reconcile how a well meaning and virtuous person like them could harbor racially based hatred in their hearts. But they have come to understand that systemic racism has impacted and infected our culture from the roots up, and that you can have black friends and still be racist. Why those same people are unwilling to see how thoroughly antisemitism is woven into the fabric of our society is confounding to me.

Dara Horn offers some useful insight… “I think that there’s a problem with antisemitism, which makes it a little bit different from other bigotries, in that it’s not just a social prejudice, it’s a conspiracy theory. And I think if you look at the long history antisemitism, which goes back to ancient times, what you really see as a through line is denial, it’s the denial of truth and the promotion of lies, the denial of Jewish experience. And you see this in many forms: conspiracy theories, holocaust denial, the medieval blood libel… And what you really find is that all of those lies are really part of what I call The Big Lie, which is this idea that antisemitism is somehow a form of justice - because Jews are assumed to be collectively evil and have no right to exist. And it’s that assumption - that antisemitism is somehow an active resistance to evil - that makes intellectuals fall pray to it.”

So I thought I would curate a short but growing list of podcasts and perspectives (below) for those curious enough to endure some hole poking at their sacred “I’m not antisemitic” or “Antisemitism isn’t as bad or pervasive as you say it is” or “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” cows, and aware enough to understand that all forms of racism live covertly in the shadows. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you or anyone else is fatally flawed** for being antisemitic. I AM suggesting that antisemitism is baked into the fabric of our civilization, and I’m asking people to see it, and do something to rectify it. And to all the Jews who have internalized antisemitism, I very sincerely wish you peace, illumination, and freedom from this particular kind of suffering.

'I Was Told Jews Were Colonialists': Ex. Anti-Israel Extremist Details Her Journey
Fighting Antisemitism: The ISGAP Hour - Mosab Hassan Yousef, The "Green Prince" of Hamas
A non-Jew's Perspective on Antisemitism and 'Anti-Zionism'
What September 11 Revealed
We Should All Be Zionists: The Palestine Propaganda Complex (Chapter 22)
You Might Be Antisemitic: A Handy Guide for the Aspiring Anti-Zionist
'Son of Hamas' Tackles University Antisemitism, Exposes Hamas 'Holy War' to Wipe Out Jews
Antisemitism? Blame the Jews.
Making Sense: Campus Protests, Antisemitism, and Western Values***

*I highly doubt this statement means to imply that Israel is perfect. In fact, I have no idea how Israel is. I don’t live there, I’m not a Middle Eastern scholar or geopolitical expert, and I’m sure it has problems like every other country. I do know that it’s the size of New Jersey — Israel makes up only about 0.1% of the total landmass of the Middle East, that it was recently voted the 5th happiest country in the world, that more than half of its citizens are black and brown skinned, and that it’s the only country in the region where it’s safe and celebrated to be queer.

**I absolutely do not want to perpetuate white guilt. I don’t think it’s serving anything for white people to self-flagellate in perpetuity because of the color of their skin. It doesn’t help anyone or solve anything. I mean it that I don’t think people are fatally flawed for being racist or antisemitic, it’s imprinted in us from the time we are born. The only “fatal flaw” is being unwilling to look at it and unlearn the bias and the behaviors.

***Excerpt: A vastly disproportionate amount of hate crime in the US is committed against Jews. It’s not against blacks, and it’s certainly not against Muslims, despite what the Islamist front group The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) would have you believe. In fact, a lot of this crime comes from blacks and Muslims themselves, who just happen to do more than their fair share of hating Jews. Jews are about 2 percent of the [US] population, and they have always received around 50 percent of the hate crime. Even after 9/11 they received far more hate than Muslims did in America. Since October 7th, the number of incidents has soared, and this is in response to the worst atrocity perpetrated against Jews since the Holocaust.